NIKOPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian mayor says Russian shelling just across the river from Ukraine’s main atomic plant has wounded four people. Monday's shelling came only hours after the latest international pleas to spare the area from attacks to prevent a nuclear disaster. Nikopol came under fire three times overnight from rockets and mortar shells. The blasts hit houses, a kindergarten, the bus station and stores.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani police have filed terrorism charges against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, escalating political tensions in the country as the ex-premier holds mass rallies seeking to return to office. The terrorism charges come over a speech Khan gave in Islamabad over the weekend in which he vowed to sue police officers and a female judge and alleged that a close aide had been tortured after his arrest.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — As Russia’s war against Ukraine reaches the sixth-month mark, many refugees are coming to the bitter realization that they will not be returning home soon. With shelling around a nuclear power plant and missiles threatening even western regions of Ukraine, many refugees don’t feel safe at home, even if those areas are under Ukrainian control.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and South Korea began their biggest combined military training in years Monday as they heighten their defense posture against the growing North Korean nuclear threat.

At least 40 people have died and others are missing in flash floods triggered by intense monsoon rains in northern India over the past three days. An official government release Sunday said …

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamic militants have stormed a hotel in Somalia’s capital, engaging in an hours-long exchange of fire with the security forces that left at least 20 people dead. That's according to police and witnesses, who said, in addition, at least 40 people were wounded in the late Friday night attack. They said Saturday that security forces rescued many others, including children, from the scene at Mogadishu’s popular Hayat Hotel.

PARIS (AP) — Violent thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds in France and Italy have left at least eight people dead. The winds uprooted trees and ripped away a restaurant roof on Thursday. The French weather service says the storm produced gusts of more than 135 mph in some areas.

MADRID (AP) — Authorities say a large wildfire burning out of control in Spain's eastern Valencia area has become one of the country's biggest wildfires of the year. The blaze has already scorched 47,000 acres along an 85-mile perimeter. As the blaze raged for a fifth day Friday, 35 aircraft were deployed to fight the flames from the air.

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was anything but subtle — dispatching warships and military aircraft to all sides of the self-governing island democracy, and firing ballistic missiles into the waters nearby. The dust has still not settled, with Taiwan now conducting drills of its own and Beijing announcing it has more maneuvers planned, but experts say a lot can already be gleaned from what China has done, and has not done, so far.

ZOLOCHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s health care system already was struggling due to corruption, mismanagement and the COVID-19 pandemic. But the war with Russia has only made things worse, with facilities damaged or destroyed, medical staff relocating to safer places and many drugs unavailable or in short supply. Care is being provided in the hardest-hit areas by doctors who have refused to evacuate or have rushed in as volunteers, putting themselves at great risk.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. investigator says contemporary forms of slavery are widely practiced around the world, including forced labor for China’s Uyghur minority. Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Tomoya Obokata also cites bonded labor for the lowest caste Dalits in South Asia, domestic servitude in Gulf countries, Brazil and Colombia — and traditional enslavement, especially of minorities, in Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say 16 people have died and 18 others remain missing after a flash flood in western China. State broadcaster CCTV says a sudden rainstorm triggered a landslide that diverted a river. The flash flood affected an area with more than 6,000 people and over 1,500 houses. Emergency authorities described it as a “mountain torrent” disaster in Datong county.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban police spokesman in Afghanistan’s capital says the toll from a mosque bombing has risen to 21 people killed with 33 others wounded in the attack. Khalid Zadran, the spokesman for Kabul’s police chief, gave the figures Thursday to The Associated Press after the bombing at the Sunni mosque.

HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — The U.S. government will hold talks with Taiwan on a trade agreement in a sign of support for the self-ruled island democracy China claims as its own territory. The announcement comes after Beijing launched military drills that included firing missiles into the seas around Taiwan in an attempt to intimidate the island after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian military has deployed warplanes armed with state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to the country’s Kaliningrad region. The move comes amid soaring tensions with the West over Moscow’s action in Ukraine. The Defense Ministry said three MiG-31 fighters with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles arrived Thursday at the Chkalovsk airbase in the Baltic Sea enclave as part of “additional measures of strategic deterrence.”

ISLAMABAD (AP) — An Afghan resident and police say that a bombing at a mosque in Kabul during evening prayers killed at least 10 people, including a prominent cleric, and wounded at least 27. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's attack, the latest to strike the country in the year since the Taliban seized power.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fires are burning and ammunition is still exploding at a depot in Crimea. That comes a day after the latest suspected Ukrainian attack on a military site in the Russia-annexed peninsula. The attacks have highlighted the challenges facing Moscow. Russia seized the peninsula in 2014. It was once a secure base that Moscow’s forces have used to launch attacks — and it was a staging ground for the start of the Feb. 24 invasion.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Residents who have fled the Russian-occupied city of Kherson say conditions in the Black Sea port just north of the Crimean Peninsula have become increasingly grim. The southern city was the first to fall to Russia’s invasion. But Kherson remains at the heart of the conflict and Ukraine’s efforts to save its vital access to the sea.

HUALIEN, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan is staging military exercises to show its ability to resist Chinese pressure to accept Beijing's political control over the island. The drills Wednesday off the southeastern county of Hualien follow days of Chinese missile firings and incursions into Taiwan's sea and airspace by ships and planes from the People's Liberation Army, the military wing of China's ruling Communist Party.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Opposition figure Raila Odinga says he will challenge the results of Kenya’s close presidential election with “all constitutional and legal options.” Odinga spoke Tuesday, a day after Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner. His promise of a challenge brought new uncertainty to East Africa’s most stable democracy. Now the country faces weeks of disputes and the possibility that the Supreme Court will order another election.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran says it has submitted a “written response” to what has been described as a final roadmap to restore its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency offered no details Tuesday on the substance of its response, but suggested that Tehran still wouldn’t take the European Union-mediated proposal, despite warnings there would be no more negotiations.

BEIJING (AP) — China is imposing visa bans and other sanctions on Taiwanese political figures as it raises pressure on the island and the U.S. in response to successive congressional visits. The Chinese Communist Party office that announced the sanctions says they're designed to punish diehard supporters of Taiwanese independence. The measures apply to Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the U.S. and others, but it's unclear whether they will have any impact.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and South Korea will begin their biggest combined military training in years next week in the face of an increasingly aggressive North Korea. The North has been ramping up weapons tests and threats of nuclear conflict with Seoul and Washington. South Korea’s military says the drills underscore Washington and Seoul’s commitment to restore large-scale training.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the U.S. of trying to encourage extended hostilities in Ukraine as part of what he described as part of Washington’s alleged efforts to maintain its global hegemony. Addressing a security conference attended by military officials from Africa, Asia and Latin America on Tuesday, Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that he sent troops into Ukraine in response to Washington turning the country into an “anti-Russia” bulwark.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Massive explosions and fires have hit a military depot in Russia-annexed Crimea. They forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people Tuesday. it was the second time in recent days that the Ukraine war’s focus has turned to the peninsula. Russia blamed the blasts at an ammunition storage facility in Mayskoye on an “act of sabotage” without naming the perpetrators.